CLIO for Reputation Protection

Dealing with a critical incident or crisis and managing it to conclusion is only one part of a successful response. How your company and CEO or MD is seen to have responded to the incident is also a key factor in whether your response leads to a positive or negative result for your company.

CLIO will allow you to respond immediately to any incident or threat and execute a policy driven plan. The most appropriate personnel and resources are brought together in a real-time and collaborative system to manage the incident to completion. This can involve operational, security, technical, legal, PR and any other department that needs to be involved. It also allows senior executives to be aware and up to date with what is happening and able to intervene or respond to the media with authority and current knowledge.

This means that you have a platform for managing the fundamentals of your response and to successfully close down the incident or crisis.

However, it is easy to make mistakes in how you deal with the media and, therefore, with the general public (who may be existing customers or future customers). This can take many forms.

Releasing information too late

Appearing non-contrite when appearing in public

Not making any public statements

Sticking to formulaic responses

Not attempting to engage with the media or the public

Blaming others

Not assuming responsibility

Offering no plan for the future

Recent examples include a company who suffered a cyber attack that led to customer data being stolen but delayed making to public for several days. Another involved a Global company who experienced a major disaster that led to loss of life and subsequent problems covering a large area but whose senior executives performed poorly to the press and appeared to be less than contrite.

In both cases, the companies saw their reputation damaged, faced heavy fines and a considerable hit to revenue and profits.

In contrast, there are other companies who experienced similar incidents but immediately showed contrition, displayed empathy with their customer base, openly and frequently briefed the media and quickly outlined how they would deal with the incidents and make reparations. These companies emerged with reputations not just intact but actually enhanced.

Using CLIO means you can develop, test and refine response plans that cover all the core actions to repair or recover from an incident but also how you respond publicly, who actually responds and what is said. CLIO also ensures that being a real-time environment all response team members and senior management have the latest information and activity immediately available to them.